The present invention relates to a tool for modeling a communications system in connection with a public switch telephone network, and more particularly to a tool for modeling the equipment and budget requirements in an interactive voice response (IVR) system into one or more geographic areas over one or more predetermined time periods.
Many companies today employ a call center to process any number of customer inquiries. These inquiries relate to such things as information with regards to accounts the customer may have with the business, information about a business"" products, contacting employees within the business, etc. Typically, a call center will include a number of components which provide for the automatic answering and routing of telephone calls received. One component may be the automatic call distributor (ACD) which is a specially configured computer which, based on information either extracted from the call or the caller, routes the telephone call within the system to the appropriate destination. These destinations may include a live agent (person) or other systems such as a voice response unit (VRU).
A VRU is a specially configured computer which provides synthesized voice messages as part of a voice recognition system or in response to detected use of a touch tone pad on a telephone. Based on inputs received via the touch tone pad, a VRU may access any number of data files, and upon identifying and retrieving information stored therein, providing an appropriate voice response. An interactive voice response unit (IVR) is a more sophisticated version of the VRU which employs snippets of recording of human voice or synthesized voice to provide responses. An IVR may take an existing database and make it available by phone for other media such as fax, e-mail, or simultaneous voice and data (SVD) components. The IVR provides access to and stores information, as well as performs record keeping and makes sales 24 hours a day. An IVR may be used as a front end for an ACD. The IVR system can ask questions that help with routing and enable more intelligent and informed call processing. An IVR can add interactive value to what otherwise would be a wait time by broadcasting additional information about the particular company the caller is contacting.
In employing a modem call center solution, local telephone companies are providing these services in a xe2x80x9cvirtualxe2x80x9d manner in which a number of the necessary components are located at one or more central office switches and these components may be shared amongst a number of different customers. This provides a dual advantage in that customers who wish to establish a call center do not have to purchase and install some customer premise equipment (CPE) associated with operating a call center. This type of situation is also advantageous to a telephone company in that equipment employed for providing call center services may be provided to multiple customers thus such that the capacity of the equipment may be maximized. This in essence provides additional revenue stream for the telephone company.
The inventors have recognized that where virtual call center capabilities are being provided within the public switch telephone network (PSTN), the network must be configured in such a way that the services can be provided to all the parties who wish to employ them, and that the costs and equipment needs necessary in modifying the network are easily identifiable. Further, the inventors have recognized that although the system may be conceptually configured to meet a desired blocking rate, it would be more advantageous, to configure the system to analysis it in light of a plurality of fault situations such that the long term expected blocking incurred in a particular system is less than or equal to a desired overall blocking.
Disclosed herein is a system and method for modeling a telephony system which is employable on a single computer platform or over a data network. In one configuration of the invention, the system is employable for modeling an automated call center which is to be incorporated in one or more locations in a PSTN and will provide services for a plurality of customers. The system described herein may be further configured to identify an optimal system for a plurality of geographic locations and/or over a plurality of time periods.
Included in the system is a base configuration calculator which is employable to identify a base configuration for the system based on an ideal blocking value entered in the system through an interface. Other information entered into the system in order to identify the base configuration may include forecasted telephone traffic for the system in a particular geographic region over one or more time periods.
The base configuration calculator may identify through the calculations performed using the ideal blocking value and the forecasted telephonic traffic, a number of a first component employed in the system. As an example, the first component may comprise an application server employable in the telephony network which may include one or more additional components incorporated therein. These additional components may include one or more voice response units (VRU), or one or more VRU cards incorporated into the VRU.
Once a base configuration for the call center system is identified which meets the ideal blocking value, a performability calculator may then be employed to calculate a long term expected blocking value for the base configuration. Employed by the performability calculator are a number of failure scenarios for one or more components included in the base configuration. For example, one or more of the application servers, VRU""s, and VRU cards are simulated to be failed and a long term expected blocking value is calculated taking into account such failure.
A recursion is employed to calculate the long term expected blocking value for the particular base configuration. If it is found that the long term expected blocking value for the particular configuration is greater than the desired blocking value, the system configuration is modified to increase one or more of the components included therein. For example, the number of application servers, VRU""s, and VRU cards may be increased in a systematic manner, and then each modified configuration analyzed to identify a long term expected blocking value. Once a system configuration is identified which has a long term expected blocking value less than or equal to the desired blocking value, this is identified as the optimal system configuration and information relating to this system may be presented to a system users through an interface.
In another configuration of the invention, a financial calculator may also be included as part of the system which based on the optimal configuration identified, may extract financial information about the configuration and provide cost information for billing and maintaining the particular system. Further, the financial calculator may be configured to provide revenue information for the optimal configuration based on forecasted call traffic information. This information may be presented to a system user along with the optimal configuration through a computer system interface in a desired format.
In operation, a system user may enter a desired blocking value and forecast information for the desired telephony system through an interface. This provided information may include forecasted system demand which may be by geographic location, and may include such values as the number of customers who employ the system, the type of customer, call rates per locations and holding times. Further, different desired blocking values may be entered for each system user. Based on this provided information, call volume for one or more geographic locations may be calculated, and this value may be employed along with the desired blocking value to identify a one or more components (i.e., application servers, VRUs, and VRU cards) to be employed in the base configuration.
As a next step, the number of additional components may be extrapolated using provided relationships, to identify an entire base configuration for the telephony system. Once the base configuration is identified, performability calculations may be performed which identify the long term expected blocking for the base configuration taking into account one or more failure modes and associated failure rates. The base configuration is continually modified until a optimal system configuration is identified which has a long term expected blocking value less than or equal to the blocking value entered by a system user.
The optimal system configuration may then be compiled in a desired format and presented on a user interface, or output in a desired manner. As mentioned above, other calculations may be performed with regards to the optimal system; such as costs for implementing and running the particular system, as well has revenues which may be earned that during operation of the system.